


Stubborn

by twostartownes



Category: Fallout 3
Genre: Blood, Drinking, Drunken Confessions, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Gore, Puppy Love, Swearing, Underage Drinking, Violence, butch bitching, theyre so fucking cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-02
Updated: 2016-09-02
Packaged: 2018-08-12 12:10:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7934113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twostartownes/pseuds/twostartownes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Butch realizes how much he actually cares about Cyder (Lone Wanderer) after she almost dies.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stubborn

"Careful. Downtown DC is swarming with Super Mutants." Cyder recalled someone in Megaton warning her about the area the night before she headed out to search for her dad. She's heard that advice more than few times since she left the vault. Everyone in the Capital Wasteland knew Downtown DC was dangerous.

"Yeah, no kidding." Cyder was now thinking. She had been shooting and taking bullets all afternoon.

Almost every single old abandoned building in the city was repurposed into some Super Mutant den covered with gore and viscera. Even the streets reeked a pungent smell of rotten human remains.

Cyder, accompanied by her fellow vaultie, Butch, took refuge in one of the subway stations which, to their surprise, was teeming with vicious feral ghouls. They barely escaped the ferals by climbing down a narrow hatch that led them to an unknown tunnel. Seeing no other option, the pair followed along the dark corridors blindly.

A few minutes into the depths of the unknown, Butch let out his first complaint.

"Do you even know where we're going?"

"No. But would you rather be smashed into pulp by a Mutie?" Cyder replied nonchalantly. That was enough to shut Butch up for a few minutes.

Cyder was equally eager to leave the place. In fact, dark cramped places had always terrified her. Not that she'd ever admit it in front of Butch.

"Look, I know we're Tunnel Snakes and whatever but that's just a name, ya know? We don't have to hang out in tunnels all day. I'd really like it if we could get out of here." Butch whined once more.

"Yeah, that's what I'm trying to do right now, Deloria."

"What were you even thinking, dragging me into this creepy tunnel to god-knows-where?"

The young girl stopped walking and sighed, turning around to look at her companion. Oh, she knew how to shut up Butch Deloria. After so many years of torment from her childhood bully, she knew at least at few ways to get under his skin.

"What? Are you scared, Butch?" she mocked, "Oh! You think there's any radroaches down here?" Cyder fake-gasped.

"You better shut your mouth, pipsqueak. Now let's focus on getting out of here."   
Butch gave her his most menacing look. No one was supposed know about Butch's fear of radroaches. Especially not Cyder Marie Thomas. But she was never gonna let that go. She still remembers very clearly the way Butch desperately begged her to save his mom. The terror in his trembling voice. The joy in his eyes when his mom was safe and sound. When he gave Cyder his trusty Tunnel Snakes jacket that he was never seen without. His familiar smell that lingered on the leather for months after he gave it to her...

Though things had gotten better after Cyder had saved Butch's mom's life and left the vault, the two still held stubborn and childish grudges against each other. Though Cyder was the one who sought Butch out in Rivet City, a part of her still resented him nevertheless. She thought she might always resent him no matter what.

Cyder groaned angrily and continued walking towards the end of the tunnel. Butch had called her "pipsqueak". She hated that. She hated when people made fun of her height. She was a slim 5ft tall girl who constantly looked 13 despite being 19. So her height and her build was usually an easy thing to make fun of her for. But Cyder especially hated being called "pipsqueak" and especially when Butch called her "pipsqueak". She figured she kinda deserved it for provoking Butch like she did.

The two arrived at a ladder that seemed to lead outside. Butch urged Cyder to climb up, impatient to leave the dark labyrinth-like tunnel. Cyder emerged through and found a door leading to the outside. The two vault-dwellers quickly headed towards the door.

The other side led them back into DC but it was not the safety they had hoped for but actually a hideout for a horde of super mutants. Cyder locked eyes with one of the green giants the moment she had pushed open the door. The mutant charged at the girl almost instantly with a large spiked plank in hand. Cyder quickly ducked down and managed to sneak away from the mutant wildly flailing his weapon. She barely fired a shot from her hiding spot before another super mutant with an assault rifle started shooting at her. Good thing she was small enough to take cover just about anywhere.

Everything happened so fast that Butch had barely noticed they were in danger while Cyder disappeared behind a wall and started taking carefully lined up shots at big green heads. Butch was halfway out the door from the tunnel when he finally pulled out his gun. He was alerted when he spotted a super mutant posted high above behind a barrier shooting at them with a rifle. He quickly fired a few bullets, or at least he thought he did. There was no gunshot sound... in fact, he didn't even pull a trigger.

Butch looked down at the "weapon" in his hands and saw his trusty comb instead. The greaser spent half of his time in the wasteland fighting and half of the time styling and fixing his hair. So his comb was always holstered right next to his gun. Embarrassed, Butch looked around first to check if Cyder had been looking at him before pulling out his real pistol.

The fight went on for a while before the last mutant was shot down by Butch. When its gigantic limp body thumped onto the ground, Butch noticed a smaller body laying nearby. He also noticed the puddle of blood that was staining her champagne coloured hair. An instant feeling of dread filled his entire body. His eyes opened wide in shock. His heart felt like it was being gripped by a vice. His head felt hot and feverish and his mind raced through all the possibilities of the outcome.

Butch took slow and inconsistent steps towards Cyder. He wanted to run and find out as fast as he could if she was still alive but his legs would not cooperate. He also wondered he should just leave her there and get to safety. People die in the wasteland everyday, right? But no, he couldn't do that. He could never do that to Cyder no matter how much bad blood they had.

Butch knelt down beside the unconscious girl. She almost looked peaceful if she weren't laying in a pool of her own blood. The moment he spotted the large gash on the back of Cyder's head he started repeating the words "Oh shit! Oh shit!" under his breath. He put his ear close to her mouth and heard her breathing.   
'Good.' he thought and he hoped he was right. He rummaged through both of their bags for a stimpack but the search came back empty. Out of options, he quickly cut off one of the sleeves of his vault suit to fabricate a makeshift pad and tied a strip of blue fabric around her head to fasten the pad onto the wound. Butch was no doctor but he knew that much.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cyder had been unconscious for 2 days. Butch had carried her on his back to Rivet City. He headed straight towards the doctors with her on one of his shoulders and the girl was now laying on a hospital cot with stitches on the back of her head. An IV was slowly pumping blood into her arm.

Butch had stayed by her side for most of the time. Sometimes, he would head down to the Muddy Rudder for a few drinks. Whenever he had enough of seeing her closed eyes and her pale and tired face, he'd drink.

On the second night, he staggered into Cyder's room after more than a few glasses of whiskey. His breath reeked of alcohol and he sluggishly stared at the girl.

"Wake up, Cyder." he said sullenly. Butch felt like a fool. He knew it was no use but he just kept trying.

"Wake up Cy. You can't fucking die on me, man."

Cyder still laid there, completely immobile.

"You can't leave me alone here. You're all I got out here!" Butch screamed at the top of his lungs. Tears were forming in his eyes.

"I don't know how you did it. Leaving the vault like that. Sure I hated that place. I hated having to do the same old job and being around the same old people but at least I was with people I knew. Out here, nobody gives a shit about anyone. No one gives a shit about the kid in the bar who wants to start a gang. No one gives a shit about me."

Butch's yelling cracked and worn out his voice. He paused for a second, looking at the floor, almost not wanting to say what he was thinking next. His gaze turned back into Cyder.

"Except you." he croaked, "You're the only person who's ever fucking cared about me."

"You were the only one who cared to help when my mom was being attacked by the radroaches. You were the only one who cared to help me get out of that vault. I can't..." Butch paused again. This time he was suppressing the lump in the back of his throat.

"I... I can't lose you, Cyder. Please open your eyes."

Right on command, Cyder woke up and stared directly back at Butch. With bleary eyes, she could see the dark-haired boy leaning over her with tears welled up in his eyes. Butch was so happy he could have hugged her but he wasn't that drunk. He just let out a loud and relieved "You're alive!"

"Are you... crying, Butch?" were the first words that came out of her mouth. Cyder mumbled the words, not in the tone of a tease but in genuine concern. Butch quickly turned away from her to wipe his eyes nonetheless.

"No I'm not!" he said like a child saying "Wasn't me!"

Butch turned back to Cyder with visible wetness smeared on his cheeks.

"You scared me half to death."

Butch regretted the second he said those words. Now that Cyder was awake, he had too much pride to show that he cared so much about her. He told her how he had to lug her body all the way to Rivet City and how he practically saved her life. Soon enough, it became more like bragging about his act of heroism. It's not like he had to save her, he just did because he is just that great.

Cyder didn't care about his boasting. She listened attentively without saying a word. She knew him by now. After his grandiose story, she suggested him to go to bed. It was late, she was still sluggish and he was drunk. Butch agreed and quietly headed towards the door.

"Hey Butch?" Cyder called.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

"Yeah, well." Butch struggled to find his words, "I figured you expected something back after all you've done for me."

Those words made Cyder's heart flutter, not that she'd ever admit it.

Butch turned back around one more time, just halfway out the doorframe.

"You didn't hear what I said before you woke up, did you?" he asked.

"No. What did you say?"

"Oh, it was nothing."

He left quietly.

Cyder pulled the covers up to her neck and rolled to her side, facing the wall. She smiled. She had heard everything. She could almost playback every single word in her mind. Her heart was beating fast and she had the widest grin on face. Cyder told herself she was smiling for no reason. That there was no way she cared about what Butch thought of her. Or what he felt for her, if he did at all... even if he did. But she couldn't get those words out of her head:

"I can't lose you, Cyder."

 

**Author's Note:**

> my children,,,,,,,,,, i love them,,,,,,,,  
> (edited a bit like a year later lmao)


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